A short interview broadcast by CNN late last week featuring
two participants -- a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli within range of the
rocket attacks -- did not follow the usual script.

For once, a media outlet dropped its role as gatekeeper,
there to mediate and therefore impair our understanding of what is taking place
between Israel and the Palestinians, and inadvertently became a simple window on
real events.

The usual aim of such "balance" interviews relating to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is twofold: to reassure the audience that both
sides of the story are being presented fairly; and to dissipate potential
outrage at the deaths of Palestinian civilians by giving equal time to the
suffering of Israelis.

But the deeper function of such coverage in relation to Gaza,
given the media's assumption that Israeli bombs are simply a reaction to Hamas
terror, is to redirect the audience's anger exclusively towards Hamas. In this
way, Hamas is made implicitly responsible for the suffering of both Israelis and
Palestinians.

The dramatic conclusion to CNN's interview appears, however,
to have otherwise trumped normal journalistic considerations.

The pre-recorded interview via Skype opened with Mohammed
Sulaiman in Gaza. From what looked like a cramped room, presumably serving as a
bomb shelter, he spoke of how he was too afraid to step outside his home.
Throughout the interview, we could hear the muffled sound of bombs exploding in
the near-distance. Mohammed occasionally glanced nervously to his side.

The other interviewee, Nissim Nahoom, an Israeli official in
Ashkelon, also spoke of his family's terror, arguing that it was no different
from that of Gazans. Except in one respect, he hastened to add: things were
worse for Israelis because they had to live with the knowledge that Hamas
rockets were intended to harm civilians, unlike the precision missiles and bombs
Israel dropped on Gaza.

The interview returned to Mohammed. As he started to speak,
the bombing grew much louder. He pressed on, saying he would not be silenced by
what was taking place outside. The interviewer, Isha Sesay, interrupted --
seemingly unsure of what she was hearing -- to inquire about the noise.

Then, with an irony that Mohammed could not have appreciated
as he spoke, he began to say he refused to be drawn into a comparison about
whose suffering was worse when an enormous explosion threw him from his chair
and severed the internet connection. Switching back to the studio, Sesay
reassured viewers that Mohammed had not been hurt.

The bombs, however, spoke more eloquently than either
Mohammed or Nissim.

If Mohammed had had more time, he might have been able to
challenge Nissim's point about Israelis' greater fears as well as pointing to
another important difference between his and his Israeli interlocutor's
respective plights.

The far greater accuracy of Israel's weaponry in no way
confers peace of mind. The fact is that a Palestinian civilian in Gaza is in far
more danger of being killed or injured by one of Israel's precision armaments
than an Israeli is by one of the more primitive rockets being launched out of
Gaza.

In Operation Cast Lead, Israel's attack on Gaza in winter
2008-09, three Israelis were killed by rocket attacks, and six soldiers died in
fighting. In Gaza, meanwhile, nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed, of whom at
least 1,000 were not involved in hostilities, according to the Israeli group
B'Tselem. Many, if not most, of those civilians were killed by so-called
precision bombs and missiles.

If Israelis like Nissim really believe they have to endure
greater suffering because the Palestinians lack accurate weapons, then maybe
they should start lobbying Washington to distribute its military hardware more
equitably, so that the Palestinians can receive the same allocations of military
aid and armaments as Israel.

Or alternatively, they could lobby their own government to
allow Iran and Hizbullah to bring into Gaza more sophisticated technology than
can currently be smuggled in via the tunnels.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the 2011 winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: (more...)